A bill recycle unit that receives and dispenses a bill is equipped with a bill validator (hereinafter abbreviated to “BV”) that validates bill species, a serial number of the bill, and authenticity of the bill. Various sensors such as an image sensor that reads an image of the bill, and a magnetic sensor that detects a magnetic pattern of the bill are provided within BV for bill validation purpose.
Related-art examples are described, for example, in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-238090
Various sensors within BV are in many cases disposed close to the surface of the bill, and, thus, in the direction of the thickness of the bill, the width of a conveying path within BV is particularly smaller than that of other conveying path within a bill recycle unit. For this reason, when a folded bill and a bent bill are conveyed to BV, jam is likely to occur within BV. When jam occurs within BV, in order to remove the bill that caused jamming from within BV, the operation of the bill recycle unit should be stopped, disadvantageously leading to the stop of account activity.